Gateway
by twilightm00n
Summary: Sometimes the body remembers what the mind doesn't. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** Spirited Away doesn't belong to twilightm00n so please don't sue.

**AN:** Note that this is under the assumption that Chihiro didn't remember what happened in the Spirit World. I hope this is somewhat original.

_**Gateway**_

_'It was getting close now,' _she thought.

Chihiro Ogino gazed at the furnishings of her simple home through the haze of the multiple painkillers in her blood. Various shades of green were present in the design of the bedroom that at first appeared more like a library with all of the books scattered around. It had been her favorite color ever since her childhood, although white was a close second.

Her condition made it slightly difficult to grasp her jade green worry stone and caress it with time-ravaged fingers. She had received it when her family first came to this place. If she remembered correctly, an old woman vendor with a rather bird-like nose gave it to her without any payment at all. From then on the stone could always be found on her person. Later, the stone's presence would mark just another of Chihiro's eccentricities for her peers.

People would never understand that Chihiro girl and her strange ways. She refused to eat pork, _always_ wore that weird hair tie whether it was in her hair or on her wrist, constantly looked at the clouds and had such an obsession with swimming that it was deemed by many to be unhealthy. Everyone continued to shake their heads whenever Chihiro happened to come up in the conversation. For a while her classmates had even speculated that she was gay due to her habit of never looking at another boy twice. Then they realized that that Chihiro girl never looked at _anyone_ twice, which only caused further gossip to ferment about the mystery.

When Chihiro became the owner of a spa, even more eyebrows were raised. Soon, the Spirit's Paradise became renowned for its care with patients and herbal hot springs. A portion of the spa's earnings always went to environmental groups, especially ones that were devoted to aquatic restorations. However, even though the spa brought in tons of profit, the owner continued to live humbly in the house of her parents, the reason for which only the lady in question knew of.

The only certainties for those who knew of the owner of Spirit's Paradise were how she acted. That she was eccentric was very widely known of course, but she was always polite, kind and somewhat distant, as if she was not completely there or divorced from her body. Not to say that she was at all stupid; she was quite clever and cunning when she wished to be (as everyone found out when she manipulated a particularly spoiled brat of a customer into acting cordial to the employees whom he had been terrorizing.) No, it was as if she did not even belong there or that she desired to be elsewhere.

Thus, over several years people mused about Chihiro Ogino and never came close to figuring her out. Eventually, she got old enough to retire and oddly enough when she left only a few ripples marked her absence. She became mythologized in the lore of Spirit's Paradise's history as the goddess who had created it. Unbeknownst to everyone else, when Chihiro finally heard of her new status she was in stitches for hours. If she had been asked about what she found funny she would have said that it felt vaguely ironic and certainly ludicrous although she did not have the faintest clue why.

For something to do, the elderly Chihiro took to reading. Surprisingly enough she became absolutely _hooked_ on tales of dragons rescuing maidens, which was decidedly strange for a woman of her age. She was enthralled with the graceful beasts although in her opinion the wings and bulkiness of their bodies somewhat took away from the effect. She much preferred the serpentine Asian dragons that weaved through the air as smooth as silk. She even bought a silk painting of one such dragon to proclaim her newfound hobby, except that the dragon was completely green and she thought there should have been another color –white would have been good- to add some contrast. But other than that she adored her new decoration.

And so the years passed…

It came as a great surprise to Chihiro when at her yearly checkup she was diagnosed with a lethal heart disease. She had always been almost abnormally healthy (the constant swimming kept her in prime shape,) but then again she was in her eighties now so it was to be expected. In another peculiar showing of her personality, Chihiro took her impending passing in stride and continued as always.

She resumed her ravenous devouring of epic tales of dragons and knights. The only difference was the ever-present IV drip and the gradual accumulation of pain medications. It seemed insane, but Chihiro was for the most part content. She sensed a turning point was approaching and was looking forward to it as the pain meds sapped her ability to read her beloved books.

It was the first day of spring. Rivers raged free from their mountain strongholds with the added power from melting snow tops. It was the time of growth and rebirth.

_'And it is also time for me to go,' _Chihiro knew.

Her rheumy eyes could only discern a faint buttery sunlight now. She tried to make out the forms of the books that were her companions for so long, but gave up when it proved fruitless.

She closed her eyes.

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO**

_She was walking down a strangely familiar tunnel, the sound of her footsteps echoing along with the faint howling of a train. Chihiro observed her surroundings as she strolled but found nobody else. _'My parents should be here though… I **know** they should be,' _she thought. Somewhat belatedly she looked down at herself. She was young again, but somehow older than she should be. She was a teenager, not ten years old. It was wrong yet right at the same time._

_As she left the tunnel, Chihiro was bombarded with a queer __**sentient **__wind that urged her forward. As it blew her hair haphazardly around her face she noted that her hair was in her trademark pony-tail with her special hair band. She could feel the jade worry stone's cool weight around her neck._

_Feeling suddenly rejuvenated, Chihiro sprinted across the verdant field until she came to a river. It was flowing freely and just like her age felt wrong and right at the same time. Gazing at it filled her with a sense of completeness, a sense that had eluded her until this point in her life._

'Or rather death,' _she corrected herself._

_So caught up in her thoughts was she, that the now young woman failed to notice a figure approaching her. When she looked up and saw an expanse of the most perfect green she had ever witnessed, her heart rate vigorously sped up._

"Okaeri... Chihiro."

_His name burst into her mind –__**Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi**__- and she __**remembered.**_

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO**

**Translations:**

Okaeri – literally welcome home

Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi – Haku's real name aka Kohaku River

**AN:** Would appreciate feedback if possible and if it seemed original. Happy landings folks.


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